After a software application is released and deployed, developers of the software application are often faced with the daunting task of dealing with a plethora (e.g., thousands) of bug reports and enhancement requests. It is often difficult to prioritize such bug reports and enhancement requests, coordinate activity among multiple developers working on the software application, and verify that each bug report and enhancement request is properly addressed.
For example, in order to implement a particular enhancement request or fix a particular bug, a developer often has to modify source code of the software application. To do so, the developer may have to reserve a particular environment (e.g., a particular combination of servers and databases) and obtain permission to modify a particular portion of the source code. Heretofore, the developer would typically have to email an administrator of the environment and/or a source code repository that maintains the source code in order to reserve the environment and obtain permission to modify the source code. The administrator may receive hundreds or even thousands of similar requests from other developers, thus making it difficult to keep track of each individual request, respond in a timely manner, and coordinate activity among all of the developers.
Moreover, software developers often have to comply with strict auditing requirements that require certain procedures to be followed when dealing with bug reports and enhancement request. It is often cumbersome and time consuming to ensure that each bug report or enhancement request complies with such auditing requirements.